“ Many waterfalls descend the hill-sides, the best known being the Reichenbach and the Alpbach, while the great gorge pierced by the Aar through the limestone barrier of the Kirchet is remarkable. The village and valley belonged of old to the emperor, who in 1234 gave the advowson to the Knights of St Lazarus, by whom it was sold in 1272 to the Austin Canons of Interlaken, on the suppression of whom in 1528 it passed to the state. In 1310 the emperor mortgaged the valley to the lords of Weissenburg, who sold it in 1334 to the town of Bern. ”